Door structure.



F. Y. PARSONS.

DOOR STRUCTURE. rum-non FILED rm. 2e, 1909.

Patented July 5, 1910.-

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F. Y. PARSONS.

. DOOR STRUCTURE.

APPLICATION FILED rnmzmme.

Patented July 5, 1910.

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4 7/ a A l S a fly WITNESSES ATTORNEL P. Y. PARSONS.

DOOR STRUCTURE. APPLIOATION FILED 313.26, 1909.

Patented July 5,1910.

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. I v r w v m w v U A gala/Ilia UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FLOYD Y. PARSONS, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY.

DOOR STRUCTURE.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FLoYD Y. PARSONS, a citizen of the United States,residing in Paterson, Passaic county, New Jersey, have invented acertain new and useful Improvement in Door Structures; and I do herebydeclare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of theinvention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which itappertains to make and use the same, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, and to characters of reference marked thereon,which form a part of this specifi cation.

This invention relates to storm-doors of the kind broadly characterizedby a plural ity of leaves or members so arranged and related that onealways occupies the closed position while the other is leaving thepassage clear.

The principal objects of the invention are to increase the normalfairway of doorstructures of this kind and to provide a door-structurewhich, in emergencies or when an abnormal fairway is otherwise required,may be quickly and readily made to leave the opening entirely free orclear, and which will never so obstruct the passage as to render it anelement of danger in case of panic within the building.

To this end the invention consists in (1) providing two leaves ormembers in operative relation to the same passageway and means fortransmitting the movement of each to the other in such manner that uponmoving either toward the open position the other will be moved towardthe closed position; (2) allowing for a certain yielding in themechanism so that both doors may be opened at once, if occasionrequires; and (3) a novel arrangement whereby the two sets of leaves ormembers, which will usually be provided to control two distinctpassageways, may be brought into tlatwise relation to each other andthen moved. bodily to one side of the opening forming the passageways.

The invention further consists in certain novel combinations andarrangements of parts permitting other advantages which will appear inthis specification or be at once apparent to those skilled in the art.

In the accompanying drawings, wherein the invention is fullyillustrated, Figure 1 is a view of the improved doorstructure, one-halfin longitudinal horizontal section Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed February 26, 1909.

Patented July 5, 1910. Serial No. 480,197.

and one-half in plan; Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical sectional View insubstantially a plane corresponding with the axes of movement of theinner doors, the right-hand one of which is assumed to be open; Fig. 3is a similar vertical sectional View on line yy of Fig. 1; Fig. i is asimilar vertical sectional view on line 22 of Fig. 5 is a plan view of acertain the guides in which it moves.

a designates the casing having its sidewalls in the form of two segmentsand its roof traversed by two guides Z) which are grooved longitudinally011 their adjoining faces (Figs. 3, 4.- and 5) between the guides andadjoining and parallel to them are the slots 0, formed in the roof ofthe casing. A

framing and framing (Z is fitted between the guides and.

comprises the longitudinal piece '6, the crosspieces 7 secured to theends of the part c and having tongues g fitted into the grooves of theguides, and the castings h which are T- shaped in form and constituteextensions of the part 6, to which they may be secured by screws 71 orthe like; said castings have the downwardly extending bushings j, andeach also has three alined holes is and Z, Z, the former between thebushings and the latter in them. The holes 70, Z, Z register with theslots 0 in the roof of the casing, and the holes 70 are penetrated byinverted long bolts m which extend through the slots and depend nearlyto the floor, nuts 17. being screwed onto their upwardly protrudingends. These bolt-s penetrate and support a partition 0 which in thenormal position of the parts extends centrally of the casing and dividesthe space of the easing into two passage-waysA and B, the former beingthe exitand the latter the entrance passage. Secured to the lower edgeof the partition are two step-bearing plates p, each penetrated by abolt m and projecting in opposite directions from the partition. Inthese plates are stepped the lower bearings 9 of the doors a, the upperbearings of which are trunnions 8 passed through the bushings 7', whichmay contain suitable anti-friction devices Z. The framing and thepartition therefore constitute a supporting structure for the doorswhich is suspended from the roof of the casing and which, upon foldingthe doors flat against the partition, may be bodily shifted to one sideof the casing, thus leaving a clear passage therethrough of doublewidth. There are four doors, two for 1; and, Fig.

each passage-way, and each turns on its axis closed. A crank 41 issecured by a nut to on the: protruding end of the trunnion s for eachdoor, the crank lying in the same plane asthe door. On each end of eachcross-piece f of the framing is arranged a pair of pulleys m,th'e spacebetween them being directly alined with the axes of movement of each twoinner (or outer) doors. Between these pulleys extend the ends of a chainor other flexible connection y which is attachedat its ends to the endsof the'crank of the two doors of the same passage-way, sa1d chamextending, between the pairs of pulleys 03, around a pulley 2. I For thepurpose of rendering this connection adjustable with respect to thecranks, allowing slack to be taken up, its extremities may beattached toset-screws 1 mounted in U-shaped clips 2 on r the cranks and adapted .tosecure the clips at any point on the cranks. The chain should be tautwhen the doors occupy theposition T above stated to be the normal one.

In order that there may be-a yield in case both doors are'openedsimultaneously, the pulley 2 may be attached to the upper end of aflexible connection 3 which extends over a pulley 4: in the roof of thecasing and carlies a weight 5 movable vertically in a box 6 having adoor 7 to permit access thereto.

So'long as one door occupies the open position the flexible connectionof course retains I the other closed; But in order to retain the formeropen until the other is moved toward the open position, I provide theplatesprings 8 which engage at' their ends the pins 9 on the framing dand, between their ends, the cams 10 on the cranks; the high part ofeach cam is on the side thereof toward which the door usually opens, sothat even should the open door be moved away from its full open positionthe spring will i immediately act to move the other door to-- ward theopen position and thereby prevent any slack being formed inthe flexibleconnection and possibly clogging the action of the doors.

Both doors for each passage-way may be locked open by the followingmeans: -A sliding rod 11 extends longitudinally through the partition 0,preferably in the upper parto'f the same. This carries the 1 pairs ofelastic hooks .12 which protrude from the partition through slottedplates 13 attached thereto; one pair of these hooksis' adapted to holdthe outer pair of doors and the other the inner pair. Each door, at apoint mating with the plates13 when the door is open, has a plate 14attached thereto and formed with a notch 15, the plate partly covering arecess 16 in the door. \Vhen the rod 11 is moved lengthwise, its hookswill stand in such positions that they will be received by the notchesof plates 14 when the doors are opened; but on moving the rod to itsother limit of movement the opening of the doors will bring the plainedge-portions of their plates 14: against the hooks so that the hookswill snap under the plates and 'hold the doors open. The rod may beactuated by a lever 17 pivoted in a bracket 18 at the inner end of thepartition and having a slot 19 receiving a pin 20 on the rod.

It will be obvious, in. view of the fore going, that my improveddoor-structure possesses several marked advantages over doorstructuresof the same class now in use. Should there be a sudden exit of a numberof persons through the passage-ways at a time, the rod 11 may be movedto the locking position so that the doors will be held open; but eventhough this be not done, the doors will always yleld to pressure, eventhough the two doors for one passage-way be pushed upon at once, so thatthey can never dangerously block the passage-ways. Again, the manner inwhich the movement of one door is transmitted to the other has theadvantage that the segmental portions of the sides of the casing maybeshorter than is now possible with the well-known multipleleaf revolvingstorm-door, thereby materially widening the passageways. This is due tothe fact that, because the advance of the chain is accomplished withgradually reducing velocity as one door is opened and causes the otherto close, owing to the end of the chain from which its movement emanatesbeing drawn around one of the pulleys w by a part moving in the arc ofacircle, the plane .in which the position of one door will coincide withthat of the other as they move in opposite directions is several degreesless than forty-five and nearer the plane marking the closed position ofeach door than that marking its open position. (It will be observed thatthe inner pulley m in each pair, to wit, the one which is the nearer tothe point z, is the one forming the active guide for the chain inaccomplishing the cotiperation of the doors, the outer pulley in eachinstance; serving mainly to prevent the chain from being unshipped fromthe inner ones.) Moreover, the doors may be operated reversely. Forinstance, the doors for passagerway B inFig. 1 are shown in' a position,where a person has passed through that passage-way, going out, insteadof through passageway-A; as soon as the inner 'door in'that case ismovedfto the open position by the next incoming person, the outer onewill be closed, leaving the doors in their usual arrangement.

Frequently, in mild weather, one door in each passage way may be securedopen and only the other one utilized to close the passage-way, in whichcase the weight 5 of course operates normally to retain the working doorin the closed position- Having thus fully described my invention, what Iclaim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a door-structure or the like, the combination of two independentlypivoted members normally occupying the one the closed and the other theopen position, and means, yieldingly connecting said members andoperative to transform the movement of one member toward the openposition into a movement of the other member toward the closed position,for transmitting the movement of one member to the other, substantiallyas described.

2. In a door-structure or the like, the combination of two independentlypivoted members normally occupying the one the closed and the other theopen position, a flexible connection connecting said members andoperatively engaged with each member at a point removed from its pivot,and a guide for the flexible connection disposed relatively adjacent tobut removed from the pivot of one member and at least as far from theother member as approximately the plane of the closed position of thefirst member is from the other member, whereby when one member is movedtoward the open position the other member will be moved toward theclosed position, substantially as described.

3. In a door-structure or the like, the combination of two independentlypivoted members normally occupying the one the closed and the other theopen position, a

flexible connection connecting said members, and operatively engagedwith each member at a point removed from its pivot, and guides for theflexible connection respectively adjoining but removed from the pivotsof said members and each at least as far from the relatively farthermember as the plane of the closed position of the member correspondingto said guide is from said farther member, whereby when one member ismoved toward the open position the other member will be moved toward theclosed position, substantially as described.

4. In a door-structure or the like, the combination of two independentlypivoted members normally occupying the one the closed and the other theopen position, a flexible connection connecting said members andoperatively engaged with each member at a point removed from its pivot,a guide for the flexible connection disposed relatively adjacent to butremoved from the pivot of one member and at least as far from the othermember as approximately the plane of the closed position of the firstmember is from the other member, whereby when one member is moved towardthe open position the other member will be moved toward the closedposition, and a yielding means maintaining a bend in said connection,substantially as described.

5. In a door-structure or the like, the combination of two independentlypivoted members, means normally tending to hold each member in the openposition, and means, comprising a connecting medium between the membersadapted to transmit the movement of one to the other whereby when onemember is moved toward the open position the other member will be movedtoward the closed position, for holding one member .in the closedposition when the other is held in the open position by the first means,substantially as described.

6. In a door-structure or the like, the combination of two independentlypivoted members normally occupying the one the closed and the other theopen position, means, yieldingly connecting said members and operativeto transform the movement of one member toward the open position into amovement of the other member toward the closed position, fortransmitting the movement of one member to the other, and means forlocking both members simultaneously in the open position, substantiallyas described.

7 In a door-structure or the like, the combination of a supportingstructure, two members independently pivoted therein, means, connectingthe members, for normally holding one member in the closed position andthe other in the open position, and a common means for locking bothmembers to the support in the open position, substantially as described.

8. The combination of means forming a passageway, two members pivotedindependently of each other each substantially at one side thereof andsubstantially at one side of said passageway, said members normallyoccupying the one the closed and the other the open position, and meanswhereby to transform the pivotal movement of one member in one directioninto a pivotal movement of the other member in the relatively oppositedirection, substantially as described.

9. The combination of means forming a passageway, two members pivotedindependently of each other each substantially at one side thereof andsubstantially at one side of said passageway, and mechanism, comprisingmeans connecting the members and operative to transform the pivotalmovement of one member in one direction into the pivotal movement of theother member in the relatively opposite direction, for normally holdingone member in the closed position otal movement of the other member inthe relatively opposite direction, for normally moving one member towardthe closed, and the other toward the open, position, substantially asdescribed.

11; The combination of means forming a passageway, two members pivotedindependently of each other each substantially at one side thereof andsubstantially at one side of said passageway, one member being disposedin said passageway .relatively nearer than the other to one end of thepassageway,

means acting to hold each member in the open position when it is in thatposition, and means, active to hold one member closed 7 whenthe other isopen, whereby to transform the movement of one member in one directioninto amovement of the other in the relatively opposite direction,substantially as described.

in the plane, extendin passageway, occupied by the pivot of one 12. Thecombination of means forming a passageway, two members pivotedindependently of each other each substantially at one side thereof andsubstantially at one side of said passageway, one member being disposedin said passageway relatively nearer than the other to one end of thepassageway, and means whereby to transform the movement of either memberin one direction into a movement of the other in the relatively oppositedirection, substantially as described.

13. The combination of means forming a passageway, two members eachpivoted substantially at one side of said passageway, one member beingdisposed in said passageway relatively nearer than the other to one endof the passageway, a yieldingflexible connection connecting said membersand operatively engaged wlth each at a point removed from its pivot, anda guide for the flexible connection disposed approximately transverselyof the member, substantially as described.

In testimony, that I claim the foregoing, I have hereunto set my handthis twentyfifth day of February, 1909.

FLOYD Y. PARSONS.

Witnesses:

JOHN W. STEwAm),

WM. D. BELL.

